Disembodied world of voice messaging

This August marks 11 years since some pressure was taken off human opposable thumbs. In the summer of 2013, WhatsApp introduced voice messaging in its service, proving to be a boon for folks too busy/lazy to type out text messages. Pressing down one thumb to record a message and releasing the thumb to send it has given rise to a new kind of information exchange. This disembodied message is not real time - one can choose to listen to the message (like choosing to read a text message) at one's own sweet time, making it closer to a telephone voicemail than to a telephone call.

But unlike WhatsApp text messages that are 'searchable', voice messages are notoriously unsearchable. There's no function yet of a keyword you remember that you can look for. So, finding what your boss or lover sent via a voice message a week ago will be the equivalent of a hunt for Red October, minus Sean Connery.

Also, a voice wafting out of your phone as a 'timeless' audio message can be more discomforting when you encounter it the first thing after you wake up than reading a text message with the same pair of groggy eyes. For receivers of regular voice messages, this can be the equivalent of encountering Banquo's ghost - but with voice. Also, voice being more intimate than text, sending out voice messages requires a boldness not everybody has/prefers to have.